Want NLCS tickets? It's gonna cost you

By KERITH GABRIEL, gabrielk@phillynews.com

Posted: October 15, 2010

As the fever pitch for another National League Championship Series that includes the Phillies increases by the minute, so do prices on secondary ticket websites.

They haven't reached the level of a small fortune yet, but the average price for a Game 1 strip was $552, according to FanSnap.com, a secondary-ticket search engine that analyzes market trends. This was up $34 from a holding average of $518 the day before the Giants closed out the Braves.

Prices on the popular ticket site StubHub.com ranged from $168 for a standing-room-only seat to $1,143 for a ticket in the Diamond Club behind the batter's box.

"Ticket prices have been significantly impacted by the opponent," said Christian Anderson, FanSnap.com spokesman. "In this case, with the Giants as the opponent, the [Roy] Halladay-[Tim] Lincecum duel is likely the primary driver of prices. Fans want to see perhaps the best two pitchers in baseball battle it out, and that is the basis behind a frenzy right now."

Seats in the infield start at $439 and average $689. Outfield seats are averaging $510 and are as low as $305. Base line seats start at $350, but are retaining an average of $593.

As of late yesterday on StubHub, 3,206 tickets remained.

"We're seeing demand up from previous years for the games in Philadelphia, which has led to higher prices on average, due to the high anticipation," said Joellen Ferrer, StubHub's corporate communications manager.

Demand is pretty evenly matched for both teams. On average, fans are paying $287 for the potential four games at Citizens Bank Park and $260 for the potential three at AT & T Park in San Francisco. On a whole, the NLCS is the higher draw ($447) on average than the Yankees-Rangers AL series ($298). To put things in perspective, Game 7 tickets in Texas average $376 in asking price, $199 less than the average asking price in Philly ($575).

'"Phillies tickets' and 'Giants tickets' were immediately the top two terms searched on [StubHub]," Ferrer said. "In this series, the most obvious story line driving prices will be the pitching matchups, mixed in with the question of 'Which team's bats will wake up?' " *